Different levels of torture…

People said I should’ve known, and maybe they were right. After all, I married a physical education teacher- a gorgeous man who plays rugby, soccer and has enough swimming trophies to make even Michael Phelps jealous. But we met in Kuwait- there were no bars in Kuwait so there was nowhere to go to watch sports, except to the local rugby pitch. The local satellite company rarely showed sporting events and if they did, they were few and far between. The first summer he came to visit me in Georgia, there was no golf channel… or if there was, I didn’t know about it so neither did he. I thought I had found this perfect man- a sporty guy who didn’t watch sports…

In Shanghai, there were a few more sporting events shown on TV, but not usually our TV. A fellow American owned a bar/restaurant on the Hongmei Lu walking street that showed various things- the super bowl, soccer tournaments, rugby games. They were always shown live, which meant at 2 or 3am, Shanghai-time. So my wonderful husband would wake up in the middle of the night and go and watch those things there. During the Masters last year, he set an alarm for 1:45am and took himself to the couch to watch hours of golf before school. Sure, I woke up to an empty bed, but I never had to endure an afternoon of golf coverage on the local channel.

Now, however, we live in Guatemala. We get a CBS station out of Pennsylvania. They show football and golf. We get ESPN in Spanish. They show all manner of soccer games, all of them equally as important as the last. And now, in the summer, it’s golf and the World Cup. I think, if I speak the truth, that my wonderful husband has only missed one or two of the games since the start- and that was on the day we were traveling home. Our activities for the day are planned by who is playing when- can we make it to our destination and back before the next game starts? And when there is no soccer, there is golf. All day, everyday, on a channel devoted entirely to golf.

People have asked, when forced to listen to my whining about all the golf, football, basketball, and soccer that is constantly on my TV, “You’re suprised?” And I have to admit that, while not surprised that he enjoys watching sports, I am flabbergasted by just how MUCH he can watch. As soon as one game/tournament is over, he finds another one. I’m convinced that if someone delcared grass-mowing to be a sport, he’d watch it.

I suppose if I try to find the good in this situation- the one I should’ve known about, but didn’t- it’s that I find myself being a bit more active, spending a lot less time in front of the TV. Because I don’t like watching golf. Soccer’s okay, but that stupid off-sides rule is, well, stupid and it makes me angry that I really don’t understand it. So I find ways to amuse myself or say yes a little more when invited out. So that’s a good side effect.

The bad side effect is that we finally broke down and became a two-TV family in Guatemala. Dave has one in his man room and I get to use the one downstairs… sometimes.